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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
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Brigid Delaney

Burning canefields, empty highways and north Queensland feet – is that life?

Sugar cane farmer silhouetted against his burning field
Sugar cane farmer silhouetted against his burning field. ‘The sight is strangely exciting, evoking a borrowed nostalgia for an Australia that I thought no longer existed.’ Photograph: Paul Dymond/Alamy

Day 10 of my 3,000km bus journey up the east coast of Australia, and I’m dropped off on the side of the road in central Queensland at 1:10am, about 30km from my destination.

It is cold. It is desolate. We are in what appears to be a bay where truckers sleep in their cabs. It’s disorienting but I calm myself with thoughts of pizza.

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